ALBUM: Odessey & Oracle (1968, RE: 2017)
MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$$$
Although Frank Zappa, whom I reviewed in my previous post, skewered the psychedelic scene, he might find the Zombies a little more difficult to do that to than others in this genre.
Why? Because the Zombies were good, and ‘Odessey and Oracle’ is an album that transcended the psych genre with its whimsical, melodic songs and cohesion.
The songs are perfectly arranged. The only glitch in the works is the album’s name spells “Odyssey” wrong. (Maybe they meant to do that but it sure kept my spell-checker busy.)
The most familiar and probably the best song here is ‘Time of the Season’ with it’s memorable refrain:
What’s you name? Who’s your daddy?
But there’s not a bad song in the bunch. It is a little on the short side but that’s better than too long– as in Iron Butterfly’s monotonous In a Gadda Da Vida, to name a random psych album from that era. The title song was 17 minutes –a whole album side, whereas 17 minutes of Odessey will get you six songs per side.
Notable songs on here include ‘Changes,’ ‘This Will be our Year,’ and, my personal favorite ‘Hung up on a Dream.’